Isometric Exercise for Hypertension

NCT06515054 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: IRE001
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 50
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Background: Isometric resistance exercises (IREs) have great potential to improve blood pressure (BP) control. Methods: This is a pilot randomized controlled trial that will involve 50 patients with hypertension (HT) who do not meet the current physical activity guidelines defined by the World Health Organization. Participants will be randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio using stratified and blocked randomization to either the IRE (wall squat) group or stretching exercise (active control) group. A well-structured, widely accepted, and validated 24-week wall squat program (2 minutes per exercise, 2 minutes of rest between sets, and 3 sessions per week) will be implemented, as it has been commonly used in previous research. All patients will be followed up for 24 weeks. Control group will receive exact same treatment except that IRE is replaced by frequency-matched and time-matched stretching exercise. The primary outcome measure will be rate of recruitment. Secondary outcomes will include BP parameters from 24-hour ambulatory BP monitoring

Conditions

Hypertension

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• rate of recruitment

  number of people recruited per month

  through study completion, an average of 1 year

Secondary Outcomes (3)

• Blood pressure parameters

  24-week after recruitment

• Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity

  24-week after recruitment

• flow-mediated velocity (FMD)

  24-week after recruitment

Study Arms (2)

isometric exercise

EXPERIMENTAL

wall squat exercise. Each exercise session will contain 4 sets of 2-minute wall squat isometric holds with 2 minutes of rest between each set (approximately 14 minutes per session in total), and a total of 3 sessions will be arranged every week (with ideally 48 h between exercises)

Behavioral: wall squat

passive stretching

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

A frequency-matched (3x/week) and time-matched (\~14 minutes each session) passive static stretching exercise will be used

Behavioral: passive stretching

Interventions

wall squat BEHAVIORAL

self-learnt wall squat exercise to be conducted for totally 24 weeks

isometric exercise

passive stretching BEHAVIORAL

time-matched passive stretching exercise to be conducted for totally 24 weeks

passive stretching

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• a suboptimal daytime SBP of \>135-160 mmHg on a 24-h ABPM
• reported no regular physical activity or less than that recommended for adults by the World Health Organization (e.g. \<150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise per week);
• on stable doses of anti-HT medication(s) for ≥4 weeks if the patient is receiving drug treatments
• agree for no drug changes during the intervention period (24 weeks);

You may not qualify if:

• cannot provide informed consent
• unwillingness to repeat ABPM
• relative contraindications to ABPM (i.e. diagnosed atrial fibrillation, nighttime workers, occupational drivers, or patients with bleeding tendencies)
• severe osteoarthritis pending knee replacement surgery
• known secondary HT
• use of ≥3 anti-HT medications at maximum doses or ≥4 anti-HT medications
• SBP or DBP are \>160 mmHg or \>100 mmHg, respectively, on ABPM
• pregnancy/breastfeeding
• active malignancy

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Chinese University of Hong Kong: lead

Study Sites (1)

School of public health and primary care

Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Location

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Hypertension

Interventions

Muscle Stretching Exercises

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Vascular Diseases; Cardiovascular Diseases

Intervention Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Exercise Therapy; Rehabilitation; Aftercare; Continuity of Patient Care; Patient Care; Therapeutics; Physical Therapy Modalities; Exercise; Motor Activity; Movement; Musculoskeletal Physiological Phenomena; Musculoskeletal and Neural Physiological Phenomena

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: DOUBLE
• Who Masked: INVESTIGATOR, OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Purpose: TREATMENT
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: clinical associate professor

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: July 15, 2024
• First Posted: July 23, 2024
• Study Start: July 20, 2024
• Primary Completion: September 30, 2025
• Study Completion: November 30, 2025
• Last Updated: December 16, 2025

Record last verified: 2025-11

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share

Locations

HK (1)